She Said, He Said
by ttobba95
Summary: (Based on the prequel for "The Name of The Doctor") One night, on-board the TARDIS, Clara and The Doctor are still wide awake, letting their thoughts linger to one another. Spoilers for Series 7. Some Clara/Doctor.


(A.N) Holy heck, guys! I saw "Nightmare In Silver" and I loved it! When it was done I immediately hit that red button and was greeted with a looped prequel for "The Name of The Doctor". It got me so hyped! I had to write something! So here it is: "She Said, He Said"!

* * *

_Clara_

_One day, you meet The Doctor. And, of course, it's the best day ever. It's just the best day of your life._

Clara Oswin Oswald lay back on her.. somewhat comfy bed which the TARDIS had supplied for her. Not for the first time, sleep was evading her. But unlike the other times, this time all her thoughts were focused on one man. An unearthly, impossible man. She wasn't even sure if "man" could be used to describe him.

The Doctor.

It had been many weeks since Clara had met The Doctor, when he showed up on the Maitland's porch dressed in a raggedy monk's robe. What happened after that had been nothing short of exciting, terrifying and above all, fun. It was the most fun she had had in years. She hadn't had as much fun since the last time her mother took her to the park when she was a little girl, and she sat on the swings talking to a melancholy man in tweed with floppy hair.

After London was saved and the Spoonheads defeated, The Doctor had asked her to travel with him. Or as she put it "jump into his snog box and fly away with him". She told him to come back next week, which was Clara-speak for "yes!".

Why?

_Because.. because he's brilliant, and he's funny, and mad._

Clara didn't deny The Doctor had his moments. His brilliant moments: facing down an Old God of Akhaten, saving a time traveller from a pocket dimension, beating Mr. Clever in chess. His funny moments: talking to her from street level outside her home about quadricycles, his phoney Yorkshire accent. His mad moments...

Well, every moment really.

_And best of all, he really needs you._

Since she was alone in her room, with only the sentient presence of the TARDIS for company, Clara allowed herself to blush. The Doctor could be very affectionate when he wanted to be. Leaving her a plate of Jammy Dodgers and tucking her in after her first Spoonhead encounter, getting her Mother's ring back from Akhaten, calling her "pretty" and "brave heart" and "the boss". No matter what happened, even after she had seen the end of the world, The Doctor did his best to get her smiling again. It was one of the many reasons she...

_The trick is, don't fall in love. I did that trick quite a lot, sometimes twice a day._

She did. Clara always had a habit of falling in love easy. Sometimes all it took was a cute boy to look her way and she'd be smitten. With The Doctor, it took her a while (when your first meeting involves alien Wi-Fi and android servers with spoons for heads, it doesn't exactly make for a good first impression.) but she eventually did fall for him. It was futile to resist. The alien chin-boy's charm, or lack thereof, had won her over. Clara loved The Doctor.

She doubted she was the first girl in the universe to fall in love with him. But she didn't care. Emma had warned her not to trust him "he has a sliver of ice in his hearts". But she didn't care.

_And once you start running, you start to forget. Slowly. After a while, you just stop asking._

When they first met, Clara had all sorts of questions. She couldn't have asked him them at the time, but she had made a mental note to ask him later. Then she made that note again. And again. And again, until she just gave up. She stopped caring about getting answers from the Time Lord she travelled with. But now that she thought about it, she was starting to ask those questions again.

_Who are you? Where are you from? What set you on your way and where are you going?_

_Oh, and what is your name?_

The Doctor was a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a tweed jacket with a bow-tie (which Clara had to admit, he made look cool). He was her favorite mystery, her puzzle to solve. She knew she would be the piece which completed the puzzle.

_You're used to not knowing. I thought I never would. I was wrong. _

And she would be right.

_I know who he is. I know how he began and I know where he's going. I know the truth about The Doctor and his greatest secret._

Clara Oswin Oswald would know who The Doctor really was.

_The day we went to Trenzalore..._

* * *

_The Doctor_

_From the beginning, she was impossible. The Impossible Girl._

The Doctor slumped against the control console in the main TARDIS control room. Not for the first time, his "27 brains" were racked with thought. But unlike the other times, this time his thoughts were all centred one one girl. The Woman Twice Dead. The intelligent Dalek. The barmaid Governess.

Clara Oswin Oswald.

The Doctor had been on many adventures with Clara Oswald, not counting the Asylum with the Ponds or Christmas with his Demon's Run army. He had kept his promise to "show her the stars". He showed her the magnificent alien word of Akhaten, taken her on a spooky ghost-hunt, solved the mystery of The Crimson Horror with her.

And it had been the time of his life.

_I met her in the Dalek Asylum, never saw her face, and she died. I met her again in Victorian London, and she died. Saved my life both times, but giving her own._

The Doctor didn't deny, he was protective of Clara. Watching her die twice for him made him determined to keep her alive as long as he possibly could. He didn't want her to die for him again. It made him realise how many of his companions died for him. Rose died for him (at least, in his world), River died for him, Donna died for him (the Donna he knew, anyway), Astrid died for him, Rory died for him (he came back, but still). He lost them all because they wanted to impress him. He didn't want to lose Clara like that again. She was far too precious to him.

_But now she's back, and we're running together. And she's perfect. Perfect in every way for me, except she can't remember that we ever met.._

That brought a smile to The Doctor's face. Clara was here, on the TARDIS, alive and safe. She was his companion. She broke the rules, didn't follow his orders, talked back to him.. Yep, she was a companion.

And she was indeed perfect.

Losing the Ponds had been the final blow for The Doctor's hearts. With each companion he lost, his hearts broke a little. And seeing his Girl Who Waited just turn around and let a Weeping Angel send her back in time shattered them completely. Not even River Song could help him recover. He retreated to 1892 and parked his TARDIS on a cloud. He erased all memory of his existance from the universe's history (or at least, tried to) and remained in the TARDIS, alone, broken and unloved. That was until Clara Oswald returned into his life, and it had been like a rainbow blasting through the grey. Clara brought him back from the brink, taught him to enjoy life again, helped him to feel again. She had healed him like Rose had healed him after The Time War. For that, The Doctor owed Clara a debt he could never hope to repay.

_Clara... My Clara.. Always brave, always funny. Always exactly what I need. Perfect._

The Doctor sighed and grinned as he continued to think of his Impossible Girl. How pretty she was in her multitude of dresses that she wore, how compassionate she was to Merry, the Akhaten Queen of Years. How she helped him talk to Skaldak on the Soviet Submarine. He remembered how.. almost lovingly he had overheard her chin joke to Emma at Caliburn House. How eager and fitting she was as "Mrs Smith" in Sweetville (even if seeing her in a Victorian dress brought back some not particularly pleasent memories). Mr. Clever was right, The Doctor did think Clara was funny and pretty. And he was the only one who knew how he really felt. He had felt this way before for Grace Holloway, for Rose Tyler, and even for River Song (and a bit for Amy Pond before... everything else). Clara had made his hearts beat again. They beated for her. The Doctor loved Clara.

_Too perfect._

The Doctor shook his head. He shouldn't be thinking like this! He had learnt from experience that falling in love led to disaster, especially if you're the last Time Lord and you've fallen for your companion! Even if it was true, there was still something about her. Nearly everything about Clara, all three of her, made him ask "Who are you? Who is the Souffle Girl? Who is The Woman Twice Dead?".

Who was Clara Oswin Oswald?

_You're used to not knowing. I thought I never would. I was wrong._

Soon he would find out. He knew he would. All the pieces were coming together. Soon The Doctor would make his move and reveal everything.

_I know who Clara Oswald is. I know how she came to be in my life and I know what she will always mean._

The Doctor would know who Clara Oswin Oswald really was.

_I found out the day we went to Trenzalore..._

* * *

(A.N) On the Fields of Trenzalore, at the Fall of the Eleventh, where no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked. The First Question, the question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight! "Doctor Who"?

I'll be watching The Name of The Doctor next week! Here's hoping Moffat ties up his loose ends neatly!


End file.
